The Task Group on Myanmar refugees set up by the state government said that efforts have been made to complete profiling and issue of identity cards to all the refugees by end of May.
The Task Group held a meeting with nodal officers in all the districts through video conferencing on Friday.
It was decided in the meeting that the process of profiling and identification/issue of identity cards be completed during the month of May, an official who participated in the virtual meeting said.
State home department officials said that around 32,000 refugees who fled Myanmar following the military coup and subsequent crackdown on anti-coup protests have taken shelter in Mizoram since February 2021.
The number of refugees kept changing as some of them returned to Myanmar or shifted to other districts within the state, the official said.
The profiling and issue of identity cards to the refugees commenced from January this year.
The increasing daily caseloads of Covid-19 in the state, especially in the Myanmar border areas, obstructed the officials from undertaking the profiling and issue of identity cards to the refugees.
Improved pandemic situation enabled the officials to resume the profiling and issuing of identity cards process.
Following the military coup on February 1, 2021, and crackdown on the Civil Disobedience Movement (CMD) by the junta, thousands of refugees crossed over into Mizoram while exodus of more refugees was triggered by the civil war between the Tatmadaw (Myanmar army) and the combined forces of the 34-year-old underground Chin National Army (CNA) militants.
Over 13,000 Myanmar people were lodged in 155 relief camps, while around 18,00 of them are staying with their relatives and friends or living in rented houses, reports said.
Mizoram government had provided Rs 3.80 crore for the assistance of the refugees with civil societies, student bodies and churches of different denominations providing aid as well as constructed the relief camps.
A high majority of the refugees belonged to the Chin community in the Chin state, who share close ethnic relationships with the Mizo people in Mizoram.
